cash LISA + fund investment for retirement?

TheLittleSaver

Alexland said:

No the Lifetime ISA bonus is the 25% extra from the government added into the account a month or two after each contribution. So if you added a £4k lump sum, invested £3980 of it (leaving a £20 cash float to pay platform fees for the rest of the tax year plus a bit more) then a further £1k cash would be added a little bit later which you could then invest.

Oh yes of course! I totally forgot THAT bonus for a moment ahaha

And yes, I will definitely leave some cash in to pay platform fees for the year, thanks for the sensible tip.

Try not to think of 'packages' you are buying a fund on a platform. The funds we are talking about are already sufficiently diversified that you don't need to buy a different one each time.

Yes sorry, by package I mean for example buy the "AJ Bell Global Growth fund". I am actually thinking on doing that, since it's high risk, but as discussed before it makes sense, considering I am still far away retirement age, so it might pay off well in the long run.

So, for example I would invest in that fund with my first £4000, then put £1000 bonus in the HSBC World index, then I will find another fund for my second £4000 next year, etc... does that make sense?

Alexland

TheLittleSaver said:

Yes sorry, by package I mean for example buy the "AJ Bell Global Growth fund". I am actually thinking on doing that, since it's high risk, but as discussed before it makes sense, considering I am still far away retirement age, so it might pay off well in the long run.

So, for example I would invest in that fund with my first £4000, then put £1000 bonus in the HSBC World index, then I will find another fund for my second £4000 next year, etc... does that make sense?

I don't really see why you find the AJB Global Growth fund attractive. It has under performed the HSBC All World passive fund for the 2 years it has existed, the charges are 2-3 times higher and it isn't available as accumulation units. A global passive fund or multi-asset fund for reduced volatility is sufficiently diversified you don't need to buy a different one each time.

Alistair31

Choose one fund and stick with it for your £4k, the £1k bonus and the next years £4K. You risk needlessly complicating things otherwise.

TheLittleSaver

@Alexland @Alistair31

I see, so put all the first £4,000 (minus cash for platform fees) + the £1,000 bonus into the HSBC all world(which is quite varied already), then do the same on year 2, then perhaps review it on year 3 to see if it's worth sticking with the same fund or choose another passive fund or multi-asset fund to enlarge my portfolio.

Did I get that right? And how often would you review your investments (considering the nature of investment we are talking about here)?

A more solid choice is taking shape, thank you very much!

TheLittleSaver

Apart from that, if anyone has any other suggestions, I am all ears!

By the way, perhaps it would be good to attend a course? Does anyone know of any online course that covers at least the basics in investing and all the different options/scenarios (not talking about learning where to invest as I'm aware that's pretty much impossible)? Or perhaps this is one of those things that you can only learn by doing?

grumiofoundation

TheLittleSaver said:

Apart from that, if anyone has any other suggestions, I am all ears!

By the way, perhaps it would be good to attend a course? Does anyone know of any online course that covers at least the basics in investing and all the different options/scenarios (not talking about learning where to invest as I'm aware that's pretty much impossible)? Or perhaps this is one of those things that you can only learn by doing?

There are plenty of resources available for free online that you can use to learn about  investing. (But likely you will keep learning more and more the longer you invest!).

Understanding what you are investing in/why you are investing before investing is important. Also researching the different types of wrappers available and the advantages (generally tax savings) /disadvantages (generally lack of accessibility) of these before committing money to them.

Alistair31

TheLittleSaver said:

Apart from that, if anyone has any other suggestions, I am all ears!

By the way, perhaps it would be good to attend a course? Does anyone know of any online course that covers at least the basics in investing and all the different options/scenarios (not talking about learning where to invest as I'm aware that's pretty much impossible)? Or perhaps this is one of those things that you can only learn by doing?

You could do worse than start here. 

https://monevator.com/highlights/

barnstar2077

Alistair31 said:

TheLittleSaver said:

Apart from that, if anyone has any other suggestions, I am all ears!

By the way, perhaps it would be good to attend a course? Does anyone know of any online course that covers at least the basics in investing and all the different options/scenarios (not talking about learning where to invest as I'm aware that's pretty much impossible)? Or perhaps this is one of those things that you can only learn by doing?

You could do worse than start here. 

https://monevator.com/highlights/

Some of those articles, although interesting, are over ten years old now, so best not draw any conclusions without some more research.  One of the articles quotes mortgage rates being at about 7%!  : ) 

TheLittleSaver

Ok, so basically I just need to learn the basics for now, like all the different names, acronyms, etc... to understand what's what. Then time will teach me (hopefully not the hard way!)

One more thing, though. Is there a way to understand the performance of a fund/share/whatever before deciding to invest? I mean, do you guys just check past performance of your options, check which one outperformed the other and decide based on that?

For example, quoting @Alexland

Alexland said:

I don't really see why you find the AJB Global Growth fund attractive. It has under performed the HSBC All World passive fund for the 2 years it has existed, the charges are 2-3 times higher and it isn't available as accumulation units. A global passive fund or multi-asset fund for reduced volatility is sufficiently diversified you don't need to buy a different one each time.

He mentioned past performance as one of the reasons not to pick AJB Global Growth Fund, but if there is one think I see all over investment platforms and websites is something like "past performance is not an indicator of future performance".

So, is there something else, apart from past performance, that you would consider to choose your investment?

cloud_dog

TheLittleSaver said:

Apart from that, if anyone has any other suggestions, I am all ears!

By the way, perhaps it would be good to attend a course? Does anyone know of any online course that covers at least the basics in investing and all the different options/scenarios (not talking about learning where to invest as I'm aware that's pretty much impossible)? Or perhaps this is one of those things that you can only learn by doing?

There are a number of decent financial commentators, Lard Kroijer being one.  His book Investing Demystified is also a useful read.

He has Youtube channel you may find useful to start with... https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gM4KEJQ_Z5U&ved=2ahUKEwikn6y4uvDtAhUrVRUIHWURAy4QwqsBMAB6BAgBEAM&usg=AOvVaw0lEImAWGUdLxHhoqKF279I